what google never told you about making money with adsense

1. INDEX ChapterTopicPage 0How to Use this Book4 1 How To Make (More) Money With7Google AdSense2 Getting Started With Google11AdSense:As Easy As 1 - 2 - 3 !3 How To Tweak Your Ads To Make16Them Click4Using Colors To Increase Your 22Clicks5How To Maximize Visibility And31 Response6 Controlling Your Ads 417Catch Fickle Visitors With The47 Google Search Box8 Building Content 529 Response Tracking: Your Hidden 64Pot Of AdSense Gold!10How To Make AdSense work With81Internet Communities 2

2. 11 How To Read Your Visitors Like A85Book12 What To Do Before You Apply To90 Google AdSense13Recommended Resources: Try 96These Tools And AdSense Utilities (Some Are FREE!)14 Keeping Track Of What Works 101 And What Doesn't Work For You!15Other Pay-Per-Click Programs 10716Getting Traffic To Your Website11017 Search Engine Optimization11518 Case Studies122Conclusion 128Legalese3 3. Dear Reader Thank you for buying this second, expanded edition of "What Google never told you about making money with AdSense: 3 Steps to Higher AdSense Income"!This is an advanced book about Google AdSense. In writing this book I have assumed that you, the reader, have a basic knowledge of AdSense.Don't let that scare you, because this book is fairly simple to understand. However, if you are new to AdSense, you might want to check out Google's AdSense Support Pages or occasionally refer to their online Glossary.I have tried to keep this book concise and very focused on the objective of increasing your AdSense income. In this book you will find hands-on solutions to many of the concerns and challenges faced by content publishers in their quest to attract targeted traffic, improve content relevance and increase responsiveness to AdSense ads using easy and legitimate techniques that have worked for me and many others.No matter what type of website you have or the nature of your content, you will find hands-on ways to increase your AdSense income.Through the pages of this book, I will teach you the exact-same techniques that I used to create a TEN-FOLD increase in my AdSense earnings almost overnight! Techniques that you can apply yourself and see real results.To those of you expecting a fat Dummies-style book with entire chapters devoted to "What the heck is AdSense?" or "A brief history of contextual advertising" this slim manual might come as a bit of a surprise. But there's a reason for that. And the reason is that I don't want to lose you before you get to the real meaty parts. I will disclose, for the first time, my proven step- by-step techniques to increase your AdSense click-throughs.Isn't that the real reason you bought this book?If so, you won't be disappointed. 4 4. I don't want to hide these golden nuggets of wisdom under piles of fluff that you can read for free on the Internet. In fact, if you want to brush up on the basics, there's nothing like Google's own quick guide to AdSense, available here.You might want to print it out into and have it handy. Refer to it often, or whenever in doubt. Why pay for free content! Get the basics direct from Google!That doesnt mean that theres nothing in this book to help beginners though. In this revised edition, I have added a short section at the beginning for people who are just getting started. If you dont have a website, Ill tell you how to build one, get it online and start earning with AdSense fast. If youre already online and using AdSense but want to know how to use it to earn much, much more you can just skip straight past those pages and dive right into the gold! Thats because getting set up with Google AdSense is the easy part. The harder part is making real money with it. And that's where this book comes in!Readers of my first edition frequently send me email, asking questions such as Where can I find free content?, How can I optimize my pages for the search engines? and How can I get traffic to my site? As a result, the expanded edition contains chapters on search engine optimization, traffic acquisition, content writing, ad formats and a whole host of other useful techniques that you can implement and feel the results in your pocket right away.I guarantee you will find insights here that you wouldn't find anywhere else. My AdSense story right from the sluggish $3/day times to the explosive $600/day when AdSense pays off my mortgage, car payment, cable (and a whole lot more actually) has taught me a great deal about how to make my web pages more profitable.Every page is bursting with hard-to-find AdSense tips, tricks and proven strategies - gleaned from successful publishers who have very generously shared their money-making ideas with me. Read. Apply. And don't forget to report your results!Drop me an email anytime at [email protected] I like to see these ideas 'at work'!5 5. In the rapidly evolving world of contextual advertising, your unique problems and real-life results will help subsequent editions stay current and useful. I appreciate your inputs!Yours for more AdSense Profits, Joel Comm6 6. Chapter OneHow To Make More Money With Google AdSenseGoogle wants a slice of your traffic. And they're willing to pay big bucks!For those who have been complaining of high traffic and low sales, there's simply no better way to cash in on those hard-earned visitors to your web pages.AdSense makes it so easy!There's no complicated software to install, no need to scout for affiliates, nothing to buy and no need to even have a merchant account. SoWhy isn't everybody doing this? More importantly, why isn't everybody making the most of it? It's "Hidden Money""Seeing is believing", they say. Most webmasters love to obsessively track their visitors, earnings and CTR's several times a day. They love to see what's there, but they often miss what can be.AdSense doesn't give you ultimate control over which ads are served, how the ads are rotated or what each click is worth. That's a good thing, because it's hands-free income. (It does give you some control though, and Ill tell you how to use those controls in this book.)But many webmasters still think that once you've stuck the AdSense code on your page, there's little you can do except wait and watch.Nothing could be further from the truth! Google gives you a great deal of control over your ads, and especially their visual or graphic elements. By tweaking these elements to your advantage, you could easily in as little as a few minutes multiply your click-throughs many, many times over!7 7. My Experiments with AdSenseI signed up with AdSense in June 2003, starting small by serving AdSense off just a few of my pages.By the end of the day, I'd delivered several thousand AdSense impressions which netted me the princely sum $3.00. I didnt exactly burn down the house.While I didnt see a great deal of potential based on this initial figure, I figured it couldnt hurt to place AdSense code on more pages. Over the period of a couple months, I increased my impressions 25-fold, but the clicks just werent happening. That was when I hit my lowest point as an Internet publisher. My click-through ratios were so bad, I needed thousands of visitors to net about $30 per day.At that point, I knew something had to change and I was going to change it!It was as late as April 2004 ten months after I signed up with AdSense that I had my eyes opened to what I had been missing all along. It was one of the Ah-Ha! moments where I felt as though I were being hit by the proverbial two-by-four. Immediately, I began experimenting with my Google ads, testing various placement and colors to see if my assumptions would hold water.The results were fast and fantastic!By applying the same easy tweaks discussed in this book, I nearly tripled my click-through rate, and my income shot up to $600 PER DAY! I still remember that golden day in April 2004 and for me there's been no looking back.From my early days of being an "AdSense nobody" to becoming a leading AdSense guru, when a five-figure monthly income no longer surprises me it's been an eventful journey full of learning experiences. Little cogs run the AdSense machinery!It's easy to get carried away when you're making so much money. But I never lose sight of the little things that make me big money with AdSense.8 8. Every AdSense partner however big or small knows that at the end of the day, it all boils down to one thing: stats! Your AdSense stats might not be amazing to start with, but make it a habit to go through it with a fine- toothed comb. As you start making sense of those 'little numbers' the big checks with follow! Fig. 1.1 Stats are the holy grail of Internet Marketing. This is a real, recent screenshot of my AdSense stats page. You can see what I'm making daily, but specific details such as CPM and CTR have been blacked out in keeping with Google's terms of service.9 9. Hitting the AdSense Jackpot!As you can see, today AdSense takes care of my car payment, mortgage, cable bills and a whole lot more besides.Aren't you dying to knowWHAT was it I did to AdSense and my website that turned it overnight into a cash-cow on steroids?!More importantly, what can YOU do to shoot your AdSense income through the roof- right NOW!My advice to you is quite simple... Don't be passive about your AdSense income; work hard to increase it. But before you try out that hot new idea you read about at an Internet Forum, be sure to check out Google's AdSense TOS. Some web publishers have forever relinquished their fat AdSense paychecks, just because they were too busy to pay attention to something so fundamental to their AdSense survival.I like to play by the rules and have taken adequate care to ensure that my AdSense tips and tweaks are legit. Making what I do from AdSense, I have little incentive to go on a rule-breaking spree and get my AdSense account suspended.For many Internet site owners, AdSense is like the goose that lays the golden egg. Take good care of your goose don't slaughter it in the mad rush to increase your AdSense income!10 10. 2. Getting Started With Google AdSense 2.1 The Basics: Building Your SiteAfter the last edition of this book came out lots of people started asking me how they can make money with AdSense. Im always happy to help people make the most of Google, but many of these people didnt even have a website!Heres the facts: to make money with AdSense, youve got to have a website. Theres no getting around that. The good news is that its never been easier to create a website from scratch and use it to generate real revenue.Im going to give a brief introduction here to creating a website from the ground up. You can find plenty more information online and Ill tell you where to look. If you already have a site up and running, you can just skip this bit, head down to 2.10 and begin reading about how to improve your AdSense revenues. 2.2 Naming Your SiteThe first thing your site will need is a name. Thats easier said than done these days. All the best words in the dictionary have either already been bought and built by developers or theyve been bought and offered by speculators.But that doesnt mean you cant create a good name and buy it for a song. Putting two words together with a hyphen can work (like http://www.AdSense-tools.com) and there are plenty of good names available if youre prepared to move outside the world of .coms into .net and .biz etc.Your first stop should be to register a domain name and order a hosting plan. One of my favorite sites to do this is Globat. They frequently offer excellent specials, such as free or reduced hosting for a year. Click here to see their latest offer. 11 11. Another stop is Network Solutions. This is a nuts and bolts service that lets you hunt and buy names, order hosting plans and even submit your site to the search engines. When youre looking for a name, you can just toss in ten options and the site will tell you which (if any) are available. All in, buying a name from one of these service wont cost you more than about $20 a year.If you cant find a name you like and that hasnt already been grabbed though, you can take a look at sites like moderndomains.com and bestnames.net. These are companies that buy domain names and sell them for a profit. Theres a good chance youll find some good names here but they can cost you anything from $50 to $50,000. Before you part with a penny, think about the advantage that a good name can bring and ask yourself if you cant get the extra traffic a cheaper way. Often, you can. And remember, twelve years ago no one knew what a Yahoo, ebay or Google was! 2.1 Choosing A Hosting ServiceYour site is going to be stored on a hosting companys server. (You didnt want thousands of people dialing into your computer every hour, did you?) Again, there are lots of different options available depending on how much you want to pay and what you need.In general, youll want to make sure that you have about 50 megabytes of space (thats enough for 100 pages!), full statistics reporting and most importantly, 24 hour service. If your site goes down, youll be losing money every hour its offline. If theres a problem with the server, you want to make sure its fixed right away.You often get what you pay for with Web hosting from free services that will cost you more than you save to $200 a month for dedicated servers. Twenty bucks a month is a reasonable price to pay and Globat and Network Solutions both offer good programs. 2.2 Designing The SiteIt used to be said that absolutely anyone could create a website. That was true: absolutely anyone who knew HTML. Today, you dont even need to know that. Programs like Microsofts FrontPage or NVU (which is free; you12 12. can download it at http://www.nvu.com) let you create sites without you needing to know your tags from your tables. If you can use Word, you can create a website.You can either have fun playing with the programs and designing the site yourself or you can hire a professional designer to do it for you.Freelance site like http://www.elance.com can http://www.guru.com are good places to advertise. You can invite designers to give you quotes and pick the best based on price and talent. Be sure to check feedback and portfolios though; a low bid is often low for a good reason. 2.3 Creating ContentIn chapter 8, I talk in detail about building content and optimizing what you write to attract traffic and maximize your AdSense revenues. There are all sorts of ways to do that but for the moment just bear in mind that the ads that appear on your site will depend on the content on your pages. Thats how AdSense works: users click on the ads because theyre relevant.And thats why its not worth putting up a site just to cash in on particular keywords. Google doesnt like it and neither do users. If your site doesnt genuinely interest your visitors, youll find it hard to get traffic, links and clicks on your ads.But there are still a lot of different ways to create content very easily that improves your income. Ill tell you all about them in chapter 8.Its also worth remembering that Google doesnt place ads on particular types of sites, so if youre thinking of building a casino site stuffed with AdSense ads, you can forget about it; its not going to happen.Before you build a site that contains any content thats remotely controversial, check out the Terms of Service (TOS) to make sure that its allowed. It will tell everything you need to know. 13 13. 2.4 Search Engine OptimizationOf course, once youre up, people have to know youre there. One of the most important ways to do that is get yourself a high-ranking in a search engine.There are lots of different search engines, but only three are really important: Google, Yahoo! and MSN. In chapter 17, Ill talk in more detail about improving your search engine rankings.If you want to take a shortcut, there are plenty of companies which will make the submissions for you and theyll even optimize your site to get you as high on the rankings as possible. Submit Express has a free service that you might find useful. 2.5 LinksYour search engine ranking will depend on a number of factors. One of those factors is the number of sites that link to yours. As far as Google is concerned if lots of sites about model railways link to your model railway site, that must be a pretty good sign that people who like model railways think your site is good. So theyll want to offer it to people who search for model railways, bringing you lots of free traffic.Once youve got your site up and running youll want to persuade other sites to give you links. You could offer to exchange links and you can even set up a page that contains recommended links so that youll have somewhere to put them.Theres a range of other strategies and services that you can use. You can find out about those in chapter 17 too. 2.6 AdSense Making The Money!Once youve done all this, youll be ready to start using and profiting from AdSense. The application process is very simple and straightforward.First, youll have to tell Google whether youre a company or a one-man show. Thats important because it tells them where to send the money. (In general, its better to get your money by direct deposit; Google 14 14. charges for express mail checks.) Youll also have to choose whether you want content-based ads, search ads or both. (Content-based ads are better but Ill tell you how to benefit from each.)Once youre approved, youll just have to copy and paste a small piece of code into your website and youre done! 2.7 Google PoliciesAdSense works. I know it works because Ive got the stats, the checks and the bank balance to prove it. And all of the methods that I used to increase my AdSense revenues are completely legitimate and in line with Googles policies.Thats important. It is possible to cheat AdSense. But youd have to be crazy to do it. You can make so much money working within Googles rules that to risk getting thrown out by putting ads on pages without content or by persuading users to click on the ads is just plain crazy.You can find an excellent run-down of Googles dos and donts (mostly donts) at https://www.google.com/AdSense/policies. The things to look out for in particular are:Code Modification You have to paste the AdSense code onto your site as is. And you dont need to do anything else! Your AdSense account will let you play with colors and placements (and getting those right is what will really rocket your income) so why bother playing with Googles HTML? Its not necessary and it could get you a lifetime ban.Incentives When the ads appear on your page, you have to leave them completely alone. You might be tempted to tell your users to click here or support your sponsors but if Google catch you, they could well cut you off. They want people to click because theyre genuinely interested in the ad. Get your strategy right and theyll do just that.Content Google is pretty picky about where the ads are displayed. They dont want advertisers complaining to them that their services were being promoted on a site that supports gambling or is filled with profanity or contains more15 15. ads than content. If your content doesnt come up to scratch, youll need a site that does.Prohibited Clicks And nastiest of all are the people who either click on their own ads or create programs to do it for them.The bottom line is that you dont need any of this stuff. Maximizing your revenue within the rules is easy! 2.10 As Easy as 1-2-3!The bottom line is that there are three ways to increase your AdSense revenue.1. By Tweaking the Adsto make them more appealing to your visitors;2. By Optimizing your Websitefor better AdSense targeting (or what the Google folks call 'contentrelevance');And the only sure-fire way to get 1 and 2 right is by3. Tracking Visitor Response.If you don't know what works (and what doesn't work) in trying to increase your AdSense revenue you're shooting arrows in the dark!The right tracking tools can reveal a great deal about your visitors and answer fundamental questions such as what they're looking for and what makes them 'click'. Once you've figured that out, bingo! You're on your way to big AdSense bucks!But it isn't as straight-forward as it seems. If it were, there wouldn't be so many grumpy people on AdSense forums, complaining about their low AdSense earnings.It's not that they aren't doing anything about it. They simply aren't doing the right things.16 16. Let me assure you that in the time that I have been using AdSense, my earnings have only gone up and so will yours, if you apply all my techniques seriously. 17 17. 3. How To "Tweak" Your Ads To Make Them "Click"! 3.1 Ad Formats: "Dress" your ads for success!How would you like your ads served? Banners? Skyscrapers? Rectangles? Squares? What about borders and background colors?The choices can be overwhelming. Many people let Google decide for them- preferring to stick with the default settings. Big mistake! From my own experience I can tell you that it's like swapping a hundred-dollar bill for a ten-dollar one.For almost one year I settled for just a tenth of what I could have been making just because I didn't bother to control the looks and placement of my AdSense ads.The various ad formats, colors and their placement on the web page can be done in thousands of combinations. You can literally spend hours every day experimenting with every possible combination. But you don't want to, do you?Let me give you a few 'ground rules' that have sky-rocketed the CTR's on my top-grossing pages: 3.2 Don't "look" like an adPeople don't visit your website for ads. They want good content.If you make the ads stick out with eye-popping colors, images or borders, that makes them easy to recognize as ads and people work extra hard to avoid them.The same goes for ads that are tucked away in the top, bottom or some other far corner of the page. So easy to ignore!If you want people to click, make the ads look like an integral part of your content. 18 18. Today's visitors are blind to banners, mad at pop-ups, weary of ads and skeptical of contests and giveaways. So how do you win their confidence? Simple. Don't make your ads look like ads! Here are a few simple choices that zoomed my CTRs to incredible heights: 3.3 Go for text ads instead of image adsA text ad offers many advantages over image ads:A. With the right formatting, a text ad 'blends in' with your site content. An image ad will not give you the same freedom with its appearance, as the only thing you can play with is the size and positioning.B. You can squeeze more text ads into the space that aconventional banner takes. People love to have morechoices!C. Properly formatted text ads don't look like clutter. Bannersdo!D. People hate banners and avoid them at sight. Many testsconfirm that people are much more receptive to text adsrelated with your content.19 19. Fig 3.1 This banner ad stands out, but will it get clicked? Dave Taylor, best-selling technology writer and AdSense partner, stands up for text ads in this article at: http://www.free-web-money.com/000449.html You can read more of his AdSense articles on this page.To compare the look and feel of the different ad formats, there's nothing like Google's official AdSense guide at: https://www.Google.com/AdSense/adformats 3.4 The Best Performing Ad SizeSo youll want to use text ads and youll want them to look like anything but an ad. But youll also want them to be a particular size. Which size is that?336 x 280 the Large Rectangle.Why should you choose the 336 x 280 ad block? Simple. It gets the most clicks! My studies have shown that this format looks most like real content added to a page. Ive dabbled with every size Google offers and this is the size that consistently has the best results. Other people have told me the exact same thing. Thats all I need to know!Second best is the 300 x 250 The Medium Rectangle.20 20. This ad block size is really useful when you went to have two sets of ads side by side. They fit on most web pages just perfectly!I would also recommend using the 'wide skyscraper', text-only ads on the right hand edge of the screen in conjunction with the 3-way matching I talk about in chapter 4.If you think about it, nearly all PC users are right handed (even left-handed people like me control their mouse with their right hand because it's how we were 'brought up' to use a mouse.) By placing the ads on the right hand edge it's psychologically 'less distance' between your right hand and the screen.This 'closeness' in my opinion makes the user feel more comfortable and therefore more likely to click through to a link. They feel more in control of their visit experience.Stay away from the 468 x 60 ad block!One of the first things people do when they sign up for AdSense is to grab a 468 x 60 ad block.Big mistake.I have a theory about why they do this. Its the same theory that explains why the 468 x 60 block does not entice clicks.Most site owners have the mindset that when they put Google ads on their site, they must place the code that conforms most to traditional web advertising. And that would be...? Yup, the 468 x 60, the ubiquitous banner format that we have all come to know and love and... IGNORE.Everyone is familiar with the 468 x 60. And thats exactly why the click- through rate on this size is very low, even among advertisers who use images on their banners.The 468 x 60 blocks screams, "Hey! I am an advertisement! Whatever you do, DON'T click me. In fact, you should run from me as fast as you can!"In all but a few special cases, I have found the 468 x 60 ad block to be completely ineffective, and recommend ignoring it the same way your visitors do.21 21. 4. Using Colors To Increase Your Clicks4.1 Design your website to Highlight AdSenseI once went to a fashion show where each model wore the exact same black outfit for the entire duration of the show. Boring? Hardly! The show was intended to showcase platinum jewelry, and the outfits were designed to enhance the jewelry instead of distracting the audience.You dont have to make all the pages on your website identical (or black). But you do want to make sure that the look of your page draws attention to the ads and makes them appear as attractive and as valuable as platinum jewelry.Many websites have strong graphic elements that catch the eye usually at the expense of the AdSense units.If you're using AdSense, be judicious in the selection of fonts, font size, colors, images, tables and other visual aspects of your website.Draw subtle attention to your AdSense units. Make them the stars of your show! 22 22. Fig. 4.1 On this website, Tim Carter employs subtle design and placement to make AdSense the center of attraction. Check it out at: http://www.askthebuilder.com/457_Tar_and_Chip_Driveway_Update.shtml4.2 Make the border go!You can more than DOUBLE your click-through's with this one simple tweak!Even before the Internet, ads in newspapers and magazines were marked off with a thick, heavy border. No wonder borders and boxes have come to symbolize advertising messages.Ads with prominent borders make your pages look cluttered. They distract the eye from the ad text, while marking off the ad blocks from the rest of the content.23 23. Google provides an extensive color palette in your administrative area (see above). Use it to tweak the look of your ads to suit your web page. With just one simple click, you can match the color of your ad's border with the background color of your web page. When the border blends with the background, it frees up loads of space. The page looks instantly neater and the ads look more inviting.Make sure you also pick a matching background color for the ad. The ad's background must match the page background on which the ad will appear. If the ad appears in a table, match the table background with the ad background. The key is to blend the background and border color with the page, so that the text looks like an integral part of your web content. 24 24. Fig 4.2 It's always easier to work with a white background. If your page background is white, you can instantly see the results with the Example ad next to the color palette. 25 25. Fig. 4.3 Don't forget to match the background color for your ad with the background color of your web page. Even with a matching border, the ad in the Example above sticks out against the white background. 4.3 Text is Design too!That's right: the text size, font, color and the color of your ads must match the other text elements. If the text color of the ads is the same as the text in the body of your page, itll help the ads blend into the site and make the reader feel that youve endorsed them.And if the size of the font in the ads is the as the size of the main body of the content, it will have the same effect: theyll look like part of your site and not something brought in by Google.Thats the sort of blending that translates into clicks. 26 26. Fig 4.5 Format your text ads to maximize clicks! On my Blog, I have chosen to use a 728 x 90 leaderboard at the top of my page. See more at http://www.joelcomm.comYou can see this on my blog. Im running a test where Ive changed the title color of the ads to match the color of the titles on the text. Ive also matched the text color of the ads to the color of the site text and the background of the ads to the background of the page. (I could also change the size of the font and see what that does to my CTR.)This 3-way matching (titles, text and background) can generate excellent click-through rates.Too many text styles add clutter and can confuse your visitors. Instead, try every legitimate way to make the ads look like a part of your web content.In other words use the colors to make sure that your ads don't look like ads! 27 27. 4.4 Blue Is BestSo you want to get rid of the border. You want to get your ads the same color as the text on the rest of your page and the background matching the background color of your Web page.But what about the link itself, the line the user is actually going to click? What color should that be?Thats an easy one: blue.I used to say that all the text in the ad should match the text on your page, including the link. After seeing an article about the benefits of keeping the links blue and testing extensively I dont say that any more.The logic is that users have come to expect links on websites to be blue. Just as they expect stop signs to be red and warning signs to be yellow, so they expect their links to blue.That means people are more likely to click on a blue link than a link in any other color.The line in your AdSense code that sets the color of your link is the one that says:Google_color_link = #color;#color is the hexadecimal number for the color you want to use. You should make sure that number is #0000FF.Keep your link blue and you can experience an increase in click-throughs as high as 25 percent! 4.5 Where did my URL go?You can change the color of your text and you can make sure that your links scream, Im a FREE road to where you want to go!But you still have to display the URL. Its one of Googles rules. But you dont have to display it in a way that people can see it. 28 28. One legitimate trick to make the click-through link less obtrusive is to change the URL display color to match the text description color. Now the link will blend in with the text description and the eye will be drawn to the hyperlink instead of the URL. Google provides these tools for you. Why not use them?Note that the 728 x 90 leaderboard and the 468 x 60 banner do not display the url line by Googles design. It is not a mistake and you will not get in trouble for the url not appearing with these ad blocks. Its just the way it is. 4.6 Deliberate MismatchingWhen it comes to choosing colors, I recommend 3-way matching and using blue for the links. But there is another strategy that you can use.You can deliberately mismatch your ad colors and styles, provided you keep it to the top of your page.This distinction generates two powerful 'zones' and therefore two types of experience for the visitor.The first zone is always at the top of the first page, above the main site banner. The titles and text colors match colors found in the banner graphic heading. (Important the URL links are hidden, so only certain text ads will allow you to do this.)The end result is that these ads, placed above the banner graphic look like key control points for your site and are just more likely to be clicked. The visitor feels that they are visiting the another major area of that site.29 29. Fig. 4.6 www.dressesforthewedding.com has two zones: an ad zone at the top and a free article beneath. Implementing this design increased their revenues FIVE-FOLD!30 30. 5. How To Maximize Visibility And Response5.1 Ad Placement: Where to put your Ads?Location is everything. The world's best ad won't deliver if it isn't visible in the first place. But after much experimentation with Google AdSense, I know that the most visible ads aren't always the most effective. In fact, they're likely to get ignored as 'blatant advertising'.What does work is wise placement. Put them where your content is most likely to interest and engage your visitors.You can create several 'points of interest' with the wise use of graphics, tables and other layout techniques.Once you have your visitor's attention with engaging and meaningful content, they are most likely to read and click on relevant ads. And that is precisely what Google wants "educated" clicks from real prospects, not random visits from bored people.Here are a few simple tips to make your ads 'click'! 5.2 Go with the 'flow'Identify the reading patterns of your visitors. What draws their attention first? What makes them 'click'?Like I said, you want to put your ads in areas that draw your visitors in with interesting content. Theres no point in putting your ads in some out of the way place where no one ever looks.Your users will follow your content, so you need to make sure that your ads follow that content too.Look at the design and layout of your webpage, identify the places that you think most of your users look and mark that as a likely spot to put your ads.31 31. Google actually offers a pretty neat tool to help you identify where your users are most likely to look. Their heat map at https://www.google.com/support/AdSense/bin/static.py?page=tips.html sums up the options pretty well: Fig. 5.1 Googles Heat Map shows an average sites hot spots. The darker areas are the regions where people look most frequently. But remember, no site is average. Where do your visitors look most?Google says that certain areas are more effective than others. Researchers have also found that when people look at a website, their eyes start in the top left hand corner and then travel down the page from left to right.All of this is true but the hottest areas can vary from site to site. You will need to experiment to find the very best places for you. 5.3. Above The FoldOne general rule on the Internet is that people spend most of their time on a site above the fold.The first thing people do when they reach a website is to absorb as much information as possible before they start scrolling. The part of the page that they can see without scrolling is called above the fold. 32 32. Thats where you want your ads.The number of links that appear above the fold affect how likely people are to click on your AdSense ads. Thats why more ads doesn't always mean more money!Google always puts the top-paying ads on the top and the lowest-paying ones at the bottom.If you have a stack with three or more ads, the cheaper ads might steal attention away from high-paying ads and clutter up your website.You dont want ads and links competing against each other. If you want to increase your earnings per click, remember: Less is More! And thats particularly true above the fold.Let's take a look at two sample pages: Fig 5.2 MegaBookshop.com has a search form, a featured product, category links and AdSense ads, all above the fold.33 33. Fig 5.3 SafetySurf.com is not the most attractive site, but notice how the only links above the fold are AdSense ads.Now, which of these sites ads do you think bring a higher click-through rate? You guessed it. The second site has triple the click-through rate of the first site. The moral of the story? If you want to maximize your AdSense clicks, give your visitors fewer choices above the fold! 5.4 Using TablesIve already mentioned that one of the principles of a high click-through rate (CTR) is to make your sites blend into the page. The more you position your sites to blend into the page, the better your click-through rate will be. One very neat way to help your ads blend into the site is to place them in tables.In the example below, technology guru Chris Pirillo skillfully drops his AdSense into a for a clean and attractive look that turns AdSense into a new focal point. See out how he does it at http://www.lockergnome.com 34 34. Fig 5.4 Note how clean the tables make the ads look. Want to get the same results with your web page? Dave Taylor (http://www.intuitive.com) shares this simple code to create a left-aligned table containing AdSense. Just paste this code where you want AdSense to appear. Easy!Left-aligned table with AdSense: Google AdSense code goes here 35 35. Right-aligned table with AdSense: Google AdSense code goes here 5.5 Ad Link UnitsSo far, Ive been talking about where to put your ads and Ive recommended above the fold, with little competition and suggested that you might want to put them in a table. But you should also think about which kinds of ads you want to place where.Ad Link units let you place a box on your site that contains four or five links. They come in sizes ranging from 20 x 90 to 200 x 90, and are really meant to be placed on a sidebar.Because you can place one Ad Link unit as well as three other units on the page, you might find that the choice helps: if a user doesnt spot something interesting in one type of ad block, he might spot it on another.Where Ad Links differ from other types of ads is that they only display a list of topics that Google believes are relevant to the content of your pages. They dont display the ads themselves. When a visitor clicks on a topic, Google pops up a new window with targeted ads.It can be argued that the Ad Links are ineffective because people have to go through two clicks in order for you to get paid. Thats right, you only get paid for the second click (but that does mean you can check to see which ads your users are being served.)But it can also be argued that if someone is taking the time to click on a topic, then they are probably very interested and are likely to click an actual advertisement on the resulting page. Some people have found that just about everyone who clicks on an Ad Link will click on the ads that appear on the next page.I have tested Ad Links on multiple sites and have seen vast differences in results. That makes it more difficult to say whether or not they are for you. 36 36. In the first case, I placed the Ad Links on an information-based site with a very general audience. The results were nothing to write home about. Let's just say that you could just about buy a large candy bar with the CPM I saw.In the second case, I placed the Ad Links on a product specific site with a narrow audience. The results were fantastic! We're talking about a CPM that is greater than what someone might make flipping burgers in one day.The conclusions should be obvious. If youre going to use Ad Links units campaign. You need to put them: 1. On a site with a specific field of interest. A general site will give you general ads and few clicks. 2. Above the fold with few other links. For Ad Links, this is crucial: If your users are going to click a link, it should be a link that gives you money.Its also a good idea to keep your Ad Link units for sites with high-paying keywords. If someone comes to your site seeking out information or a product on a top-notch keyword, they tend to be more likely to click as a result.Lets take a look at an example: 37 37. Fig 5.5 LockerGnome.com puts AdLinks above a list of links so that they blend into the site. Ive already mentioned Chris Pirillos site at Lockergnome.com as an excellent template for how to do AdSense properly. While I don't have access to his AdSense statistics, I have watched his sites long enough to speculate as to his success.The center column of his page is classic AdSense placement. He is using a medium or large rectangle with blue links, black text and subtle URL. The ads are placed inline and right justified. People start on the left and drift to the right. My testing has also shown that ads on the right perform best.He is using a 120 x 600 skyscraper ad, which I usually don't recommend. However, many people use the skyscraper ads in sidebars. Pirillo has thought outside the box and used the white space next to his bullet points for this page. Right justifying the skyscraper block and placing it inline is a slick move.38 38. But look where his Ad Links are: in the top left column of the page, above the fold. That means you can see Ads by Google as the first item. As long as those AdLinks are very targeted to the content on the page, they could generate 1%-2% in clicks. If you have the space and they fit in your sidebar, I would test them on your site as well. 5.6 Horizontal Ad Link UnitsRecently, Google introduced a new format for Ad Link Units: horizontal. This is a huge difference. Users are reporting increases in CTR as high as 200% using this units!Instead of piling the links one on top of the otherwhich is great for putting above lists of links but stand out too clearly when placed in textthe horizontal ads blend in perfectly when placed on pages with articles. Fig. 5.6 New horizontal Ad Link units are great for inserting into articles and show very clearly which keywords your site is generating.You can still only use one Ad Link unit per page and users still have to click twice before you get paid but theyre definitely worth slipping into a long article. Id recommend that you put them either above the article or in the middle. Theyll be too easy to miss at the bottom.39 39. 5.7 Using Multiple Ad BlocksSo Google allows you to put up to three AdSense blocks (ad units) on the same page, as well as an Ad Link unit and a search box. What does this mean for web publishers?A real bonanza: you now have many more chances to hook readers with new ads as Google will show unique ads in each ad unit!To leverage this opportunity, look at adding new content to your high-traffic pages. Use attractive, quick-loading graphics that encourage people to scroll down. For example, relevant, catchy graphics could be a great way to draw your visitors to an ad. A B2B website could run a daily cartoon strip with a humorous take on trade news and issues. Your AdSense ads can be positioned right underneath the cartoon, which will lend instant visibility to the ads.Thats a strategy that will maximize exposure to the AdSense units, leading to more clicks and more money!With multiple ad blocks, you can decide which ads are served in the best place for your site. 40 40. 6. Controlling Your Ads 6.1 Attracting Relevant AdsGetting the color and placement right will help improve your click-through rate. But neither of those will affect which ads your site serves.In theory, Google controls the ads that appear on your site. You dont get to choose them at all. In practice, there are a few things that you can do stop irrelevant ads from appearing and ensure that you get the ads that give you cash.The more relevant the ads, the greater the chance that a user will click and youll earn money.The most important factor is obviously going to be your content. Googles robot will check your site and serve up ads based on the keywords and the content on your page.Bear in mind that Googles robot cant read graphics or Flash or pretty much anything that isnt text. Ill talk about content in detail in chapter 8 but for now, remember that if you want to keep your ads relevant, youve got to have the sort of page that Google can understand and use to give you the ads you want. 6.2 Keep The Title, Directory And Headlines RelevantHow exactly Googles robot reads pages is a secret guarded about as closely as Coca Colas special syrup formula. One thing that does seem to have an effect though is the title of your URLs and files.When you create your pages and view them on your computer before uploading them to the server, you should find that AdSense serves up ads related to the name of the directory that holds the page. That gives a pretty big clue as to at least one of the things that Google is looking at: the name of the directory.Actually, its not just the name of the directory thats important. The name of41 41. the file plays a big part too.If you have a website about wedding trains and the title of one of your pages is trains.php for example, theres a good chance that youll get ads about Amtrak and Caltrain. That wouldnt give you many clicks. Change the name of the file to weddingtrains.php and theres a much better chance that youll see ads related to weddings.If you find that the ads that are appearing on your site have nothing to do with your content, the first places to look are your directory and your title. Make them more relevant to your content and you should find that you get better ads.Another place to look is your headlines. Instead of using a tag for your heading, try using the tag with headings that contain your keywords. That should help them to stand out to the robots.And if you dont have any headlines at all, try adding some. 6.3Finding KeywordsWe know that Googles robot searches websites for keywords, then reports back and tells the company what kind of ads to send to the site. If your site is about pension plans for example, then your keywords would be things like retirement, 401k and pension.Getting the right keywords on your site wont just make your ads relevant; it will also help you to make sure that the ads you get are the ones that pay the most.There are all sorts of tools available on the Web that tell you how much people are prepared to pay for keywords. www.overture.com and www.googlest.com let you see how much people are prepared to pay, and keywords.clickhereforit.com also has a list of keywords with their prices.Again, you dont want to build a site just to cash in on a high paying keyword but if you know that 401k pays more than retirement for example, then it makes sense to use the higher paying keywords more than the lower paying ones. 42 42. See chapter 12.4 for more on finding the most up-to-date high paying keywords. 6.4 Keyword DensityYoull need the right keywords to get the right ads. But youll also need the right amount of keywords.Theres no golden rule for the putting right number of keywords on a page to get the ads you want. Youll just have to experiment. It also seems to be the case that keyword density is counted across pages, especially for high-paying keywords. If you have a site that's generally about cars and you write a page for car rental, a higher-paying keyword, you might find that you need to produce several pages about car rental before you get the ads.In general though, if you find that your ads are missing the point of your page and that your titles are all correct, then the next step would be to try mentioning your keywords more often and make sure that theyre all finely focused. For example, talking about fire extinguishers is likely to get you better results than talking generally about safety equipment. 6.5 Keyword PlacementIt shouldnt really matter where you put your keywords, should it? As long as the right words are on the right page in the right amount of numbers, that should be enough to get you relevant ads, right?Wrong.One of the strangest results that people have had using AdSense is that putting keywords in particular places on the page can have an effect on the ads the site gets.In my experience, the most important place on your webpage is directly beneath the AdSense box. The keywords you place there could influence your ads.For example, mentioning clowns in the space directly beneath the AdSense box could give you ads about circuses and red noses! 43 43. Keeping that in mind, you could play with your ads in all sorts of ways. If you had a site about camping for example, you might find that youre getting lots of ads about tents and sleeping bags, which would be fine. But if you also wanted to make sure that one or two of your ads were about Yosemite or mobile homes, then mentioning those keywords once or twice on the page directly below the AdSense box could give you ads for sites with that sort of content too.Bear in mind though that youll often find that you get ads that try to combine the main thrust of your site with the words in that keyword space below the ad box. So if you had a site about gardening and you mentioned cabbages beneath the ad box, youre more likely to get ads about growing cabbages than ads about cabbage recipes.Experimenting with the placement of the keywords could allow you to control at least one or two of the ads you receive and help keep them varied. Thats definitely something to try. 6.6 Keyword FramesOne of the reasons that websites dont always receive relevant ads may be that all the navigation and other non-content words affect the way Google reads the page. If your links and other words take up lots of space, it could well skew your results.One way to avoid your navigation affecting your ads is simply to create frames. You put all of your content in your main frame and the navigation material in a separate frame. Only the content frame has the Google code (google_page_url = document.location), so your keywords wont be diluted by non-relevant words. 6.7 No 'Baiting'!Often I've clicked through a 'promising' website, only to find reams of keyword spam, interspersed with AdSense. Websites like these make AdSense look bad.Keyword spam may trick search spiders, but your human visitors will leave disappointed. 44 44. People hate being 'baited' by a web marketer. Offer content that makes their visit worthwhile. Address the needs and concerns of your visitors with original content.Quality content builds trust and loyalty and that, in turn, makes people want to click. Search rankings may change, but loyal visitors keep coming back for more! 6.8 Changing MetatagsMetatags certainly arent what they used to be and in AdSense, theyre barely anything at all. Theres a good chance that when it comes to deciding ad relevance, your metatags have no effect whatsoever.Ive already mentioned that the title of your page will have an effect. Its also very likely that the description does too.But that doesnt mean that your metatags are completely irrelevant when it comes to AdSense. They arent. Theyre only irrelevant when it comes to serving ads; they still play a role in search engine optimization and getting your site indexed faster. 6.9 Inviting The RobotSo far in this chapter, Ive explained some of the ways that you can tweak your page to keep your ads relevant. But the changes you make wont have any effect until Googles robot stops by and re-indexes your page. What will generally happen is that once you upload your new page, youll still get the old ads and you might have to wait some time before the robot visits it again and you can find out whether your changes have the right result.To get the robot to stop by earlier, reload the page in your browser, and then again a few minutes later. Do not click on any of the ads just reload and wait a few minutes before attempts.You should find that you receive new ads within a few minutes.45 45. 6.10 Public Service AdsThe penalty for not getting your keyword placement and density right isnt just irrelevant ads. It could also be no ads at all. If Google cant find any relevant ads to give you, it could use your space to present public service ads, which are very nice but they dont pay you a penny. You might prefer to earn money and give it to a charity of your choice rather than give space on your site to a cause that Google chooses.The most obvious way to beat this problem is to specify an alternate URL in the event that Google has no ads for you. You can do this from your AdSense account. Instead of linking to the Red Cross or whoever it may be, youll receive a link to a site that youve pre-chosen. For example, I have set up default ads for my 336x280 ad block.http://www.worldvillage.com/336x280-1.htmlThey look remarkably like AdSense ads, dont you think?You can also use this space to deliver image-based ads that come from your server. For offers that pay per action (clicks or signups), I like to use WebSponsors.com. You can signup for a free account and find new ways to monetize your unused ad space.You can also use Google Backfill, a very neat service that allows you to select keywords relevant to your site and display targeted ads instead of the public service ads or your alternative URL. Theyll match your colors and styles and split the revenue 50/50. Its all in line with Googles TOS and makes good alternative to no revenue at all while you get your keywords fixed. The service is available at www.allfeeds.com 6.11 Blocking AdsFinally, the last way to control the ads you see on your site is to block ads you dont want. Google gives you a limit of 200 URLs to block, which isnt much. You might well find yourself burning through them pretty fast, especially if you try to block lower paying ads in favor of the higher-paying ones. Playing with keywords, content and placement will give you much better results. 46 46. 7. Catch Fickle Visitors With The Google Search Box 7.1 Finding Money With SearchWhat happens when your visitors can't find what they want on your website? They might be bored, probably they're hungry for more or they might want to refine their search. If you have a Google Search Box, you can now retain these 'quitters' and make money from ads they click from their search results!The Google Search Box isn't just an added convenience for your visitors it can actually make you money!If your AdSense ads are being ignored, add a link at the bottom of the AdSense ads, inviting visitors to try Google search. A simple note should do the trick. Try something like: "Can't find what you're looking for? Try Google Search!"A Google Search box allows your visitors to specify their exact search terms, thereby "pulling" more relevant ads to your page. Using the Search feature, you can pull up on-demand AdSense ads at the top of the search results.At the bottom of the Google text ads, place a link to the Google Search bar, inviting readers to Search for better-targeted content and offers. When visitors click an ad, YOU get paid!You can invite users to search within the website or the entire web. As far as possible, use a staid gray button for the Google search feature. It looks more believable and legitimate! Note that Google has not played around with its own search buttons, although the logo itself has undergone many theme-based transformations. 47 47. Fig 7.1 The "Search" feature is an important part of content-rich websites. On my website above, users are invited to search different threads within the website 'by keyword' and 'by username'. Check it out at: http://forums.dealofday.com/search.php?Google Search Boxes are getting increasingly popular with Internet Forums, enabling users to pull up relevant text ads "on demand"! 7.2 Learn How To Add Google Search To Your Web Page!Adding Google Search to your Web page is very easy. This Step-by-Step Tutorial shows you how: 48 48. How to Add Google "AdSense for Search" to your Web Page! 1. Log in to your AdSense Account and click the "Account Information" tab.2. From theAccountInformation Page,click on "Products"and then the "EditInformation"button to Subscribeto AdSense forSearch. 3. Click the "Search Settings" tab 49 to specify your search preferences and results. Paste the html code on your web page and start turning those clicks into AdSense cash! 49. 7.3 To Search Or Not To SearchPutting a Google search box on your site brings advantages and disadvantages. The big plus is that all the ads the user sees are going to be relevant. The user chooses the keyword so the results are going to be right in line with what the user wants.On the other hand, that means youve got no control over the keywords they choose so you cant try to promote high-paying keywords. You have to take what youre given. You could have a high click-through rate but low revenues (although theres still no guarantee that the user will click on an ad rather than an unpaid listing on the search results page.)But your users will leave your site at some point anyway. Why shouldnt you try to make money when they do click away? Even if Search doesnt bring you huge amounts of money, you should still use it as an added revenue source and to bring extra functionality to your users. I look at it this way. If a visitor doesnt find what they want on my site, Id prefer that they leave some change in the tip jar on the way out the door! 7.4 Home Page SearchingOne way to increase your revenues from searching is to encourage your users to use your site as their home page.Many users have Google as their home page. If youre offering the same service as Google, using their search box and delivering their results, theres no reason why they shouldnt be searching from your page and giving you revenue from the ads.Just encourage your users, especially users with Google as their home page, to switch to you, and youll be able to make the most of your search function and your ads. 7.5 Customizing Your SearchGoogle lets you customize the search box to match your site in the same way that you can customize your ad units. But a different principle applies here:50 50. you want to prevent your ads from looking like ads; you want your search box to look like a search box.You can certainly make the box look like part of your site so that it looks attractive but as I said, keep the button grey.People trust Google to deliver results that they want. If the search box reminds them of Google, theyre more likely to use it than go to Google.com and search from there.7.6 An Innovative Search ScriptBob Rankin of www.tourbus.com shares a custom-made javascript that allows you to suggest additional search terms for your users. Note that is a violation of Googles Terms of Service to modify the search code. However, this script is independent of the search code, though it does dabble with the input.Simply replace ABC, DEF and GHI in the script below with whatever search terms you wish to provide as suggestions for your visitors.// change forms[0] to forms[n] as needed.

Suggested Searches
Click a highlighted word below, then press the Search button.

ABC DEF GHI 51 51. 8. Building Content 8.1 Writing ContentAdSense works better than just about every other type of online advertising for one simple reason: the ads are relevant to the content on your page. Users click on the ads because they find them interesting.And they come back and click on them again because they find your content interesting.If your site doesnt have good content, youre going to struggle to attract users and links, and you wont be able to persuade anyone to come back to your site.Having the right content then is crucial to having good revenues with AdSense. Its also crucial to the relationship you have with Googles indexing mechanism. Remember, Google is a search engine first and foremost. Their purpose is to provide the web user with the best search results for the terms they are seeking. If you are providing quality content, you have a greater likelihood of having your search results come up higher on the page.Fortunately, its also easier than ever to fill your site with page after page of sticky content, each of which contains ad units and opportunities to earn revenue.The most obvious way to create content is of course to write it yourself. Pick a subject you like and pour your heart out. If you know everything there is to know about video games, you could set up a site stuffed with reviews, news and walkthroughs, and write all the articles yourself. Your AdSense units will give you ads related to gaming and as long as theyre positioned properly and look right they should give you more than enough revenue to fund your video gaming habit and then some. You can do the same thing for any topic you wanted.But remember, if youve created your site to make money, then writing the content yourself means that youre working for that money. When you count your revenues, you have to factor in the time and effort it took you to make those revenues. 52 52. Thats one of the reasons that many people look for other, easier ways to get content around their ads. (The fact that they just dont like writing is another good reason.) Fortunately, theres plenty of ways of creating effortless content and some of them are even free. 8.2 Making Bucks With BlogsWriting blogs isnt exactly effortless, but it is something a lot of people do for fun and because theyre updated regularly, Google loves them. If youre going to write a blog anyway, then you should certainly be making money out of it.The biggest challenge when writing a blog is getting ads that give you good revenues. Because your entries are going to be talking about all sorts of different things, theres a chance that youre going to get ads on all sorts of random topics.Thats fine, unless your ads are barely giving you enough revenue to pay for the blog.If you find that youre getting lots of ads related to blogs for example, instead of what youre blogging about, you can try changing the meta name in your template. Delete the tag and replace it with your own keywords and description:Make sure that your blog has plenty of keywords and use lots of headlines containing key phrases, repeating them throughout the blog.Above all though, make sure that your blog has plenty of text. It might be fun to stuff your pages with pictures of friends, family and pets but Google cant read them and youll end up with public service ads instead of revenue. 8.3 Adding AdSense To Your BlogNot all blog sites use the same template so how you add AdSense to your blog will depend on the company youre using. 53 53. For users of Blogspot.com, which is owned by Google, you can put the ads in the template section of the site:

The code should then look like this:

Before uploading, check the preview to make sure that the ads are where and how you want them, then Save Template Changes and Republish to refresh the blog.Of course, you dont have to place AdSense directly above the text. Another option is to embed the ads within the text so that they appear after particular entries. That would limit you to three entries per page (if you wanted an ad unit after each entry) but it could increase your click-throughs. 8.2 Old ContentBlogs have to be written all the time, but if youve ever written anything in the past, dont just let it gather dust on your shelf. Give your old work a new lease of life by throwing it onto the Web!For example, Low Fat Linux by Bob Rankin was written years ago. You may be able to find it on Amazon.com, but its not likely that many people are buying it because you can read the entire book for free at www.lowfatlinux.com.Bobs content has done its job of selling copies. Now its doing a second job, selling clicks to ads.What have you got lying around that could be earning you money?55 55. Fig. 8.1 Bob Rankin makes money from old content. Note the position of his ads. Theyre prominent but could he get more clicks by putting them on the right? He could also have added an AdLink unit above the list of links on the left.You might have an ebook of your own that isnt selling very well. Instead of attempting to sell your ebook for $19.95, why not turn it into web pages and make it available for free for all to enjoy? Paste your AdSense code on the pages and you may make more from the ads than from sales of your ebook. Repurposing old content is a fantastic way to draw water from your own well. 8.3 Volunteer WritersTo use old content, you have to have content in the first place. If you dont happen to have any out-of-print books that youve written lying around and you dont feel like writing something new another option is to ask people to write for your site for free.Lots of people like writing. Just look at Amazon. They didnt pay a penny for all those book reviews. Their users write them for free and Amazon benefits.When I started www.WorldVillage.com, I didnt have money to pay the people who reviewed software for me. Instead, I contacted the game companies and received complimentary copies of their computer games, which I then forwarded to a staff of volunteer writers. The agreement was that they would provide me with a written review of the game and they would keep the game as payment. Ive got dozens of game reviews that 56 56. bring users to my site and get them clicking on my ads. I didnt pay a penny for them but years later they continue to generate revenue for me.You dont have to use reviews though. Whatever the subject of your website, you can add a line asking people to send in their thoughts and comments. You can just say something like: We want YOU! We want your thoughts, articles and comments. Send your submissions to [email protected] and well post them here.You can then create a whole new set of pages for your users submissions and put AdSense on each one of them. Fig. 8.2 Game reviews at http://www.worldvillage.com/softwarereviews/index.html Mmm... free content. 8.4 Build Thousands of Pages with Other Peoples ContentWhat is the focus of your web site? Is it all about parenting? Do you help people with their finances? Does your newsletter introduce people to new web sites? Or is your focus on the legal field? Regardless of your niche, you can benefit from taking advantage of one of the little-known secrets of AdSense experts FREE syndicated articles. 57 57. Many writers want nothing more than to have their work published and read. Syndicated content is a dream-come-true for writers AND publishers. For the writer, it exposes their work to a larger audience. And for the publisher (thats you!), it means more quality content for your site. You might not be aware that there are literally THOUSANDS of articles available online which you can easily add to your web site!Of course, the trick is knowing where to find these articles. Below is a list that can get you started by showing you where you can find over 30,000 articles that are ready to be placed on your own web site.Please note that each site has its own restrictions and rules for using its content. In all cases, you must leave the authors name and web site link intact. Some sites require that you also link back to the site where you found the article. This is critical! Remember that while you are allowed to use the articles on your pages, the content is still property of the author. Please give credit where credit is due!You may wish to publish articles only relevant to your topic, or you may wish to become a publishing powerhouse, adding thousands of new pages to your site. Regardless of how you wish to approach it, here are a few sites that provide you with thousands of FREE articles that you can republish on your web sites.EzineArticles.com http://www.ezinearticles.com A fantastic resources featuring over 21,000 articles covering a huge range of topics. However, they do have a limit of 25 articles/year for each site. Look through the categories and you can select some gems.DotComWomen.com http://www.dotcomwomen.com/free-content.shtml Nice selection of articles targeting women.John Watson http://members.tripod.com/buckcreek John offers his stories for site owners to enjoy and place on their sites.ValuableContent.com http://www.valuablecontent.com/ The site name delivers as promises. Dozens of categories with hundreds of 58 58. articles for you to publish. Marketing, business, humor, internet, legal, computing, sports, travel and many more.Patricia Fripp http://www.fripp.com/articleslist.html Patricia Fripp is a businesswoman, marketer and motivational speaker. Her site offers over one hundred articles perfect for any business-oriented site.ArticleCity.com http://www.articlecity.com This one is a source of articles that will keep you busy for weeks on end. ArticleCity offers over 12,000 articles that you can place on your site. If the topic exists, you can bet that this site will have an article on that topic. I recommend spending a great deal of time selecting articles for your site here.Want to find more? Simply do a Google search for "free articles" and see what turns up. Fine tune your search for your topic to find articles relevant to your site, such as free parenting articles or free financial articles.Now that you know where to find free content, you can build hundreds or thousands of keyword relevant pages and place your AdSense code on them to generate more revenue. 8.5 Add Public Domain Works To Your SiteOne of the best kept secrets of free content comes in the form of Public Domain works. Basically, these are books, articles, recordings and pictures whose copyrights have expired. Since they have not been re-registered with a copyright, they enter the public domain. What does that mean? It means ANYONE (including you) can publish, re-publish and/or sell the works without paying a commission to anyone!Think about this. You can build a site with HUNDREDS of pages just by publishing one public domain book on your site! Think of all the AdSense impressions you can deliver. The possibilities are endless.I have two sources that you will want to investigate to find Public Domain works that you can begin using immediately59 59. Idea #1 Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg is the oldest producer of free electronic books on the Internet. Their collection of more than 15,000 eBooks was produced by hundreds of volunteers. As of this writing, the top 10 most popular works on Project Gutenberg are:1. The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci by Leonardo da Vinci2. Project Gutenberg "10K" DVD 3. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett 4. The Art of War 5. Ulysses by James Joyce 6. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 7. Project Gutenberg "Best Of" CD August 2003 8. How to Speak and Write Correctly by Joseph Devlin 9. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 10. Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm Check out their entire library at http://www.gutenberg.org/ Please note that while you may republish these works on your site, you are not allowed to resell the works themselves.The downside of using works from Project Gutenberg is that hundreds of other people may already be using them. You might opt for less popular works in order to get better search engine placement.Idea #2 The Lost FilesCreated by Russell Brunson, The Lost Files is a subscription-based service that provides the latest works to enter the Public Domain. In other words, he keeps you posted of new books and articles before everyone else gets their hands on them!Here is a list of some titles available to members: 60 60. * How To Develop Self Confidence * How To Draw and Paint * Guide To Bowling * What Character Does Your Handwriting Reveal * How To Develop Perseverance * How To Become A Speaker * Dreams Interpreted * How To Play Tennis * Hints On Writing Short Stories * How To Make Money * Strength From Eating * How To Study The Bible For Greater Profit * The History Of Music * How To Make and Use A Home Radio * How To Write A Hit Song And Sell It I have subscribed to this service and plan on testing some new public domain works on one of my sites. You can read more about The Lost Files at http://www.adsense-secrets.com/thelostfiles.html 8.6 AdSense In RSS FeedsOne of the biggest changes to take place on the Internet recently has been the growth of RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. These let subscribers see when a site has been updated and sends them information instead of waiting for them to come to the site to see it for themselves.The good news is that Google is starting to put AdSense ads in RSS feeds.The system is new and Google is still testing it as Im writing this book but if youve got an RSS feed on your site (or want to set one up) and youve got more than a hundred subscribers, your site can join their team of Beta testers.There seems to be little room for tweaking the ads, although its a safe bet that the same principle of blending the ads into the page would apply as much here as on a Web page. At the moment though, the ads only appear after the content, at the bottom of the URL. You can apply for the program at http://services.google.com/ads_inquiry/affAlternatively, if you dont want to be a Google guinea pig, Kanoodle is ahead of them. You can use their program at http://www.kanoodle.com/about/brightads.cool61 61. 8.7 Use Your Newsletter To Drive Traffic!A great newsletter is another way to capitalize on AdSense. Newsletters are fantastic tools to drive repeat visitors to your pages!Here's one way to use them: Instead of mailing the entire newsletter, save a few juicy tid-bits for your website and provide a link for your visitors to click.When subscribers click-through to get the full story, they're likely to click your ads. And send you another AdSense bonanza! For example, Prizepot (http://www.prizepot.com) is a contest and sweepstakes site with a new item each day. Their free weekly newsletter is sent with a teaser for all the new items posted that week. In order to find the entry form, you must click the link in the newsletter. Of course, when you arrive at the destination page, not only do you receive information about the contest, but you are greeted by AdSense ads. For a sample newsletter, send an email to join- [email protected] you have a big, responsive mailing list start turning it now into extra AdSense cash!And if that isnt a good enough reason to start producing a newsletter, it looks as though Google are also testing AdSense in the newsletters themselves. Theyve already been doing it for iVillage.com and theres a good chance theyll be extending it to other users soon.You can either create a newsletter yourself and mail it using a mass mailing system like Intellicontact.com or you can ask someone to write it for you. ConstantConversions.com (http://www.constantconversions.com) is a copywriting service that specializes in newsletter writing. You can tell them about your site and theyll do it all for you, from concept to inbox. You can even tell them you want it optimized for AdSense. Theyll know what to do. To start your own email newsletter and auto-responderfor your site, I highly recommend Aweber.com. With Aweber, you can build unlimited lists with unlimited autoresponders. That means you can have your list set up to automatically send email to certain groups at predetermined times. Along with their email broadcast services, Aweber is my first choice for many of my lists. 62 62. 8.8 Buying Content/ Hiring WritersOne of the problems with free content is that you can get what you pay for. And if your site doesnt have valuable content, its going to have an effect on your click-throughs.The alternative of course is to pay professional writers to write for you. Ive already mentioned www.elance.com as a good place to find designers but its a good place to find writers too. You can also ask ConstantConversions.com to write articles for you.The advantage of hiring writers of course, is that you can be sure youre getting good content with little effort. On the other hand, you have to make that money back.Try testing a writer to see how much profit a series of articles generates. If you pay $200 for five articles but find that your new pages dont give you a $200 increase in revenues, you either need a new idea or a new writer. 8.9 Automated ContentFinally, a couple more options you can use to create content for your website are ArticleBot and TrafficEqualizer.Both these tools automatically create pages filled with content based on your keywords, saving you the hassle and expense of writing and buying content yourself.The folks at Google arent crazy about pre-fabricated, useless content and its unlikely your users will be either. Theyre probably better than nothing, but good content is best of all.63 63. 9. Response Tracking: Your Hidden Pot Of AdSense Gold!In the last chapter, we talked about content. Google won't let you ask visitors to click on your ads, or use other deceptive ways to make them click. But good content is an endorsement in itself. Some of its charm rubs off on the ads, making the ads more believable and interesting!If you have a website with impartial product reviews, for instance, visitors are more likely to click the ads to learn more about a product, check out the latest prices or order online.Its crucial to create content thats genuinely interesting. But your work doesnt stop there.After setting up your AdSense Account, the first thing you want to do is play with your ad formats and placement to make the ads blend in. That's where the bulk of the "easy-money" is hiding.But once you've got that right, what next? You start tweaking the text and making all sorts of other changes to improve your CTR.But every time you make any sort of change to your ads, you must track the results.Consider this example:Joe Drinker has a great website about "How to make Beer at Home". It's doing well on AdSense, but not well enough. His weeks stats look something like this:Date Page Clicks Page CTRPage eCPMYourImpressionsearnings 4/2/05 409301516 3.7%5.62 229.92 4/3/05 403581574 3.9%6.59 265.99 4/4/05 389621517 3.9%6.11 238.01 4/5/05 335631381 4.1%6.38 214.21 4/6/05 329781325 4.0%6.76 223.8164 64. 4/7/05 2820712944.6%7.52212.01 4/8/05 2732212514.6%7.47204.20Joe is pretty happy with his CTR but wonders if he can raise his CPM and in the process, lift his earnings. So he looks up high-priced keywords related to his subject, and works the term "beer cans" into his content.A few days later he logs into the stats on his AdSense account and finds that that that change has actually HURT his income: Date Page ClicksPage CTRPage eCPM YourImpressionsearnings 4/9/05 32744985 3.0%4.21137.95 4/10/053228610233.2%4.94159.59 4/11/0530954986 3.2%4.59142.08 4/12/0526850898 3.3%4.78128.52 4/13/0526382861 3.3%5.08134.28 4/14/0522566841 3.7%5.63127.20 4/15/0521858813 3.7%5.60122.52Joe has not only disappointed a lot of collectors who come looking for beer cans his site contains lots of keywords but little in the way of good content he has also discouraged visits from people who want to make beer at home.His search ranking has gone down, making his website harder for people to find him and lowering his impressions. It's also hurt his earnings per click as the people who visit the site leave faster. What's worse is that he's also risked his AdSense standing!Now, does that make it a bad idea to optimize your website for AdSense?Not at all. It is actually a good idea, if you do it right. And by that I mean No Shortcuts!There is a simple, step-by-step process to optimize your website for high- paying search terms. And this method is almost fool-proof! So why isn't everybody doing this?Simply because very few web publishers know how to use Tracking to their 65 65. advantage.Tracking will not only help you minimize your mistakes, it will also reveal hidden pockets of money that you would have never found otherwise.Read on to find out how YOU can use Tracking to sky-rocket your CTRs and increase revenues per-click. TIP: Click here to learn about tools to optimize your website for high- paying search terms. 9.1 How To Track With ChannelsGoogle has its own FREE tracking feature called "Channels". Channels remind me of spy movies, where a smart chip is planted in the arm of a super sleuth, making it easier to track his activities or whereabouts.AdSense hands you 50 such chips. Use them to track ads on specific domain names or to group ads according to specific ad formats, keywords, their location on the page etc. You can use any other factor that might impact their effectiveness, based on the type of website you have.Channel those clicks! Google tells you many things about each Channel, such as the ad impressions, click-throughs and earnings data.You can use the channel reports to find out which channels are making you the most money and how to increase your earnings for other channels. 9.2 How To Create A ChannelYou should create a channel for each one of your sites.Within a site, youll still have the option of creating channels for individual pages if desired, and this can be useful if you want to check how well ads are doing on a certain set of pages versus another set. But start by creating one66 66. URL channel for each site and youll have the general overview that you can use as a starting point for your tracking.And its very easy to do.The first thing youll want to do is create URL channels. Fig 9.1 Google gets powerful with URL Channels.The original Channels required you to manually change AdSense tags for each ad block you wanted to track. Many AdSense partners complained about the pesky old channels, and at last, Google launched its URL Channels to make life easier. 67 67. You can use URL Channels to track individual pages or just specify the domain name to track all the pages in that website. The pages or websites you add will be automatically tracked there's no need to manually change the code on those pages. Neat!If I need to track all the ad units appearing on my website www.DealOfDay.com, I just need to feed in the domain name and Google does the rest. The URL Channels are especially useful if you have several websites, and have a general idea of the formats, colors, alignment etc. that works best for you.Remember though, you still need the original, Custom Channels if you want to track ads across different domain names, based on ad sizes, formats, colors etc.For instance, if I want to track left-aligned ads across all my websites (sites with different domain names), I need to group them together into a single channel and manually change the channel code for each page.First, I name the new channel: Fig. 9.2 Here comes a new channel...Then I choose the Ad Type, Layout and Color of the ads I want to track:68 68. Fig. 9.3 Defining the ads to track in my new channel.Finally, its simply a matter of allocating an alternate URL if I dont want public service ads, selecting the channel and copying and pasting the code onto each of the pages that contain the sort of ad I want to track: 69 69. Fig. 9.4 Creating the code for my new Channel.Of course, I would then have to repeat the process if I wanted to track ads of a particular color or size.While Google can now track ad performance for your specified domain name, please don't expect URL or Custom Channels to give you data about your visitors, such as who referred them to your website or which web browser they use. These are details only your server logs can tell you. 9.3 How to Read your Server LogsVarious AdSense Tracking programs are currently sold on the Internet. This type of software runs on your own server which means it has access to vital visitor information.70 70. These packages are not affiliated with Google, but you can use most of them without violating the AdSense TOS.External tracking software can tell you many things that the Channels don't reveal, such as:- Where your visitors are coming from; - Where the ad-clickers are coming from; - What search keywords led them to your web page.Your stats package should compile and interpret your log files. It will tell you how many people visited your pages, how long they stayed, which are the most popular pages, what countries/domains they visit from, and how many bookmarked your site.Just about all the information you need.One thing that external Tracking software cannot do for you, is to tell you exactly how much MONEY a specific ad (or a group of ads) is making for you. Only Google's Channels can tell you that.External tracking software can tell you an ad's CTR, but your AdSense income also depends on factors such as the earnings per click, content relevance, your ranking on Google Search Results and many other factors besides.That means that the same ad can produce different commissions on two different sites.The better your site (the higher your ranking, the more links you have etc.) the higher your commissions will be.I do recommend the use of external tracking software in addition to Google's Channels.Why? Because Channels can be quite confusing if you use them by themselves. Consider this example:In this hypothetical case, Jim has a website about fast cars, where he discusses his passion with thousands of like-minded visitors. He decides to 71 71. find out which ads are doing better than the others.Jim groups all ads with a blue border into a specific channel, which he called "Blue_Border". He finds that the blue-border ads generated a 5% CTR (click- through ratio), while the rest of the ads generated around 2% CTR on average:Channel Ad UnitClicks Ad UnitAd Unit Your Impressions CTReCPMearnings Blue_border 113785695.0% 7.2482.38 Green_text112055252.0% 6.2970.54 Tall ads129633022.3% 1.2215.78Next morning Jim tweaks all his ads to give them a blue border. The result? The ads in the "Blue_Border" channel continue to generate 5% CTR, while the rest of the ads (which also have a blue border now) are still generating 2% CTR. Very confusing!Channel Ad UnitClicks Ad UnitAd Unit Your Impressions CTReCPMearnings Blue_border 116065905.0% 7.2486.50 Green_text1176555 2.0% 6.2974.07 Tall ads123152872.3% 1.2214.99Clearly, there's something else that's making Jim's visitors click and it probably has nothing to do with the blue border.What is that hidden ingredient that's jacking up those click-through ratios? The Channels won't tell.Jim now decides to install an external tracking software on his website. After looking through his server logs, he finds that ads with the term "Car Accessories" are getting the maximum click-throughs. How does Jim know that?Simple. His tracking software tells him which ads his visitors are clicking. He also knows which sites his visitors are going to.Jim found that of all his visitors, those who searched for the term "Car Accessories" were generating the maximum click-throughs on his web pages. Naturally, ads with the term "Car Accessories" were doing better than the others. 72 72. Should Jim now optimize his website for the search term "Car Accessories"?For most web publishers, that's good enough to get down to work.But Jim is skeptical. Jim wants to know if his "Car Accessories" ads are also his top income generators.To find out, he creates a Channel to track the earnings of all ads with the term "Car Accessories" in it. He calls the new channel "Car_Accessories".A few days later, Jim logs in to his AdSense account to check his earnings. He finds that about 30% of his income is drawn from visitors looking for car accessories. ChannelAd Unit ClicksAd UnitAd UnitYourImpressions CTReCPM earnings Car14577 729 5.0% 4.971.43 AccessoriesThat's significant, but it raises another question in Jim's mind.Where is the remaining 70% of his income coming from?He looks through his tracking reports once again and finds that ads with the term "Car Parts" are also doing well. He found that while "Car Accessories" took the lead with 5% CTR, the "Car Parts" ads were generating a healthy 3% CTR.Jim is excited. He knows he's on to something big!Jim's tracking software has helped him uncover two great "leads". Which of these will lead him to his top income generator?The plot thickensTo find out, Jim now creates another channel called "Car_Parts".A week later, he logs in to compare his earnings for each channel.Here are Jim's results:Total AdSense income for one week = $1666.6773 73. "Car_Accessories" Channel = $500 (30% of total AdSense earnings)"Car_Parts" Channel = $1000 (60% of total AdSense earnings)Remaining Ads = $166.67 (10% of total AdSense earnings)Incredible! Jim now knows that his "Car_Accessories" ads might be getting him the most clicks, but his "Car_Parts" ads are making him the most money!Google won't tell you all reasons why the "Car_Parts" ads are making Jim more money. But Jim knows that the keyword "Car Parts" is probably more expensive, and that his website ranks better for that term.FINALLY-- Jim is ready to act on this information. Let's take a look at his various options:1. He can use it to optimize his page for the search term "Car Parts", so thathis content is more relevant. Jim knows from experience that when hisranking for the search term "Car Parts" goes up, so will his earnings perclick

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